Today is the beginning of a new life for Johnny--hopefully. He tries not to move as the doctors carefully clip the bandages covering his eyes. What if he opens his eyes and finds himself still in eternal darkness? He's not sure he could handle the disappointment. Born blind, Johnny has never looked upon his mother's face in his nineteen years on earth; although, in his mind's eye, he knows her features well.

Finally, the last piece of tape comes loose and Johnny opens his eyes to--darkness--or maybe more a grayness. He can make out vague shapes, like ghosts floating in a fog, but nothing more.

"Johnny, Johnny, can you see me, son?" his mother asks. Her voice is trembling and choked with emotion. Then his mother's beautiful face swims out of the mist, smiling down at him. There are tears in her lovely eyes.

Johnny blinks several times and the fog fades a little; the ghosts become doctors and nurses, another, he guesses, is his father. A woman with shoulder length hair wearing blue jeans and a checked shirt is standing in the corner furthest from Johnny's bed. She seems familiar to Johnny in some strange way but there's no way he could ever have 'seen' her. He looks again a few minutes later and the woman is gone. 'Probably a reporter wanting to know if the eye transplant was successful,' Johnny thought to himself. He forgets about her in the excitement of being able to see.

Johnny touches his mother's face, "You're more beautiful than I imagined, Mom. What color are your eyes; are my new eyes blue? What color is my hair; is it like yours?" He rattles off questions faster than a machine gun.

"Hold on son, one thing at a time," Johnny's Dad laughs. "Yes, your new eyes are blue, but your hair is black like mine. Now, let's check you out of here, you can gab at us all you want at home."

It didn't take Johnny long to learn the names pertaining to certain colors. He was in awe of the beautiful world he lived in. A Cardinal landing in the Fir tree by his house made him giddy with delight. The red and gold in sunsets and sunrises took his breath away. Clouds sailing across an azure sky could hold his attention for hours. The simple things other people took for granted gave Johnny a high; like heroin to a dope addict.

One thing puzzled Johnny. He kept catching glimpses of the woman he had seen in his hospital room. He now knew her hair was red and she always wore blue jeans with the same blue and white checked shirt; Johnny thought she looked very sad. Also, of all things, he kept seeing cows, a white German Shepard, a small gray cat, and a gun of some kind; but most often the woman.

"Mom, do you have any idea who donated my eyes?" Johnny asked.

"No, all I know is a sixteen- year- old was killed in some kind of horrible accident near the farm where he lived. That's all the information the doctors gave me; other than the boy's mother donating her son's eyes so some good would come from his untimely death. It must have been very hard for her. Perhaps it warms her heart to know that some part of her son still exists."

It was only a few days later when Johnny decided to go for a walk in the woods. It was autumn and the vivid orange, red, gold, and yellow of the trees seemed to call his name.

He hadn't gone far when a weird feeling filled him and the landscape developed a hazy appearance. Shortly thereafter, two boys with deer rifles appeared out of the mist; Johnny instantly felt as if he knew them from somewhere. One of them, David, (how do I know his name? Johnny thought) started unloading his rifle. There was a loud bang when the gun misfired and Johnny screamed as a bullet tore through his body. "David, David, help me," he cried.

Several hours, or perhaps minutes later, Johnny floated up from the darkness. He could feel the cool, moist earth beneath him; somewhere a crow squawked and a squirrel chattered in a nearby tree. He spat the dirt out of his mouth and started to rise: Then froze when he realized what he was looking at.

A young man sat on a weather- beaten log about five feet from Johnny. The boy's hair was black and a little long; he wore a denim shirt, blue jeans, and sturdy boots. He would have been a very handsome fellow but for one thing: there were two black holes where his eyes should have been. Horrified, Johnny tried to run and found himself paralyzed.

"I wasn't ready to die, but I did," the spirit said. "You have my eyes, and while I may not like it, there is nothing I can do. I just wanted you to know how it felt to die as I did. You, however, owe me a favor in return for my gift. I want you to find my mother and tell her I remember her and will love her forever; I never got to tell her goodbye. Give my dog a pet, he will know who it's from, and very important, hug my cat, Iggy, she misses me terribly. Do these things and I will never haunt you again." The ghost faded from view.

Johnny buried his face in his mud covered hands and wept. He vowed to find the boy's mother and deliver the message if it was the last thing he ever did. Johnny did indeed have a debt to pay.